Ontario apartment resident shoots, kills intruder

Photo Gallery: Home intruder shot by resident ONTARIO -- An Ontario man shot and killed an intruder who broke into his apartment early Monday morning.

Police came to the 2500 block of East Riverside Drive after receiving several calls from residents at 3:02 a.m., said Ontario police Sgt. David McBride.

The intruder, identified by police as 24-year-old Thomas Gilbert Manzano of Barstow, had broken a back window to an apartment, according to police, climbed inside and confronted a man.

The two men brawled, police say, and Manzano allegedly threatened to kill the man. That's when the victim's father came to his rescue.

"He arms himself, comes into the room and ends up shooting the suspect," McBride said.

Paramedics took the suspect to Kaiser Medical Center, in Ontario, where he died about an hour later, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner's Department.

Police said Manzano had been visiting his mother in the same complex, and had been hanging around with another man who was squatting in a vacant unit at the complex.

Manzano and the other man spent several hours drinking alcohol and returned to the complex early Monday, according to police, but instead of going to the vacant unit, they mistakenly went to the victims' home.

Manzano banged on the door, waking up the father. The father told him to go away. Police say Manzano threatened the man and then forced his way into his son's bedroom.

The father, seeing Manzano attacking his son, shot him, police say.

Police say both victims have been cooperative with police. The father is a legal gun owner.

"Obviously they have the ability to protect themselves in their home with reasonable force," McBride said.

The case will be presented to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office for consideration of charges.

It is the second incident in the Inland Empire in nine days involving a home intruder who was shot by a resident.

Another incident occurred in San Bernardino on June 15.

Police said Leonard Guerra, 35, of San Bernardino broke into a home in the 2200 block of West Mill Street. The homeowner's daughter entered the home to check on it and screamed for help when she saw Guerra.

Guerra grabbed her.

The woman's father woke up, confronted Guerra and shot him. Police said Monday he survived his wound.